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Could the 10-cent-per-gallon gas tax in Washington affect B.C. drivers?

Washington officials are proposing a 10-cent-per-gallon price increase, but that could be bad for B.C. consumers who head south of border looking for cheap deals on anything from groceries to filling up their gas tanks.

Photograph by: Kevork Djansezian
, Getty Images

Washington state officials are proposing a 10-cents-per-gallon price increase on gas, but that may not deter Metro Vancouver consumers who drive south of the border looking for cheap deals.

Gas would still be much less expensive in Washington state than in Metro Vancouver, where it is nearly 40 cents more a litre, although some drivers may want to add up the costs of a trip before heading to the U.S. to fuel up.

A poll last week found roughly three-quarters of Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley residents made at least one trip to Washington state, often to Blaine or Bellingham, to shop or buy gas during the past year.

According to the poll by Insights West, a marketing research company, nine of 10 respondents who made the trip south of the border said lower prices motivated their excursions, including gas prices.

But that could change as Washington state lawmakers on Thursday proposed a 10 cent bump in the gas tax.

The tax is part of a larger transportation revenue package that would raise $9.8 billion US over the next decade to fix a crumbling transportation infrastructure.

The plan, dubbed Connecting Washington, was introduced by Democrat Judy Clibborn, who is chairwoman of the state’s transportation committee. It was conceived after a group of 40 mayors from Washington state urged the government to levy a higher gas tax, saying that more than $3 billion is needed to repair and maintain roads and bridges over the next 10 years.

The Insights West poll suggests that virtually every B.C. respondent said gas purchases were part of their cross-border trips.

The average cost of gas today in Metro Vancouver is around $1.38 per litre, up from around $1.34 last week, according to the to price monitoring website gasbuddy.com.

But in Richmond gas prices were running Friday as high as $1.45 per litre and $1.42 at some stations in Surrey, Langley and Vancouver.

Meanwhile, pump prices in Bellingham Friday, were on average the equivalent of around $1.

Washington’s gas tax is 37.5 cents per gallon, while combined gas taxes in Metro Vancouver are around 45 cents per litre, the highest in Canada, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

While the increase in Washington state may deter some, the majority of people who commented in response to the news on social media Friday morning stated that the increase was so minor — equal to about the cost of a cup of coffee for a full tank of gas — that it wouldn’t stop them from fuelling up in the U.S.

Washington officials are proposing a 10-cent-per-gallon price increase, but that could be bad for B.C. consumers who head south of border looking for cheap deals on anything from groceries to filling up their gas tanks.

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